Protecting Your Cyberturf: Everlasting Tweets

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - It's hard to remember life before Twitter but there may come a day when Twitter is not the "it" thing anymore.

Still, did you know that your tweets will have an afterlife? The U.S. Government is collecting every single tweet, from comments about the first cup of java on a Monday morning to Tsunami information to the protests in Egypt.

Cyber expert Theresa Payton tells you digital is forever. The Library of Congress collects information that might be vital to our Nation's history. That mission extends to digital data but they usually don't collect everything digital and hold it forever. Tweets are the exception and Payton tells us why:

WHAT WE KNOW:

The Library of Congress said they are not collecting "private" tweets which might mean the direct message function but they are collecting all tweets, regardless of topic, and storing them forever.

We told you previously the National Archives was collecting tweets and storing them but their focus was much more limited.

So the question is, what will the future do with the tweets of today? Care to retract any tweets?

NETCATION: It's a mashup of two words: internet and vacation. We all probably need more of this, a vacation from not just work but the internet too. So you might see someone on Facebook or Twitter say, "Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I took a netcation".